PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ
It’s hard to know who to praise more in the National Jewish Theater’s Puttin’ On the Ritz: An Irving Berlin American Songbook: Sheldon Patinkin for creating a revue as rich as his material and for staging it with industrial-strength pizzazz; Jim Corti for his period-perfect choreography, with the two-step, Charleston, swing, and tap rivaling one another for authenticity; Kingsley Day, whose sure-handed musical direction and supple arrangements bring out the strength of each song; set designers Richard and Jacqueline Penrod, whose cream-colored bandstand is framed by a giant golden fan; or the six-member cast, who hoof and croon, strut and soar to beat the band–without miking, as God meant it to be.
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The delightful survey traces Berlin’s musical development: his early novelty-ethnic numbers (“Cohen Owes Me Ninety-seven Dollars,” a rare revelation of his Jewish roots), his infatuation with ragtime (the rhythms borrowed from black composers) in hits like “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “International Rag,” showstoppers (“A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody”), rousers from the Roaring 20s (“It All Belongs to Me”), and his wildly successful, sentimental sheet-music hits (“All Alone” and “Always,” reduced here to a bad joke).
The stream of songs isn’t always chronological; melodies from 1936 are mixed into “The First War” scene, and the Depression scene is represented by Jazz Age numbers. In the brilliant second act the arrangements are usually thematic (torch songs, “love and the weather,” tunes for top hat, cane, white tie, tails, and taps). The result is a clever dialogue between the ballads; the 1950 duet “It’s a Lovely Day Today,” for instance, is wryly linked to the 1939 song “It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow.”
Earlier this season Ziegfeld made a cameo appearance (through the voice of Gregory Peck) in the listless homage The Will Rogers Follies. In Dallet Norris’s clever pastiche Ziegfeld, a Night at the Follies, now playing Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, the showman remains offstage, but his influence is everywhere–in the breakneck burlesque, the extravagant costume parades, and the cornball sentiment. Adding to the schmaltz are tunes by Berlin, Cole Porter, Vernon Duke, Frank Loesser, and Jerome Kern. Try to imagine the Ziegfeld Follies without that gorgeous procession to Berlin’s “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” or an Eddie Cantor wannabe (David Nehls) bouncing around to De Sylva and Meyer’s “If You Knew Susie.”
Dispensing cynical wisdom are the veteran, gum-cracking Follies stars (Kelly Prybycien, Pam Harden, and Tammy Ann Mader), whose hard-boiled, gold-digging advice about men comes down to “If you’ve got curves, they’ve got angles” and “If they want to play ball, they’d better bring their own diamond.”
